U.S. Marshal Lucas Davenport is back in Masked Prey, a new crime thriller in the popular series by author John Sandford.
A sinister website appears on the internet. Created by an unknown party, the site shows photos of children of prominent political leaders in various normal daily scenes. Posted along with the photos are an array of extremist articles advocating violent political opposition to the U.S. government. A threat to take some kind of action against the kids in the photos is clearly implied.
The website looks dangerous. Concerned senators bring in Lucas Davenport to investigate who is behind the site. Lucas has personal experience with website programming. Working with the FBI, he begins by looking into already established militant political groups. He runs into some angry, surly misfits, but nobody who seems to fit the suspect he's looking for.
Lucas worries he's after the hardest prey to catch --- a ruthless, lone wolf type with no ties to any militant group. Then the worst happens. A kid gets shot and killed by a hidden sniper. Lucas and his team get a lead and race onto the trail of the shooter.
Masked Prey opens slowly, with much material on the threat of dangerous internet websites. It takes a while for the plot to get moving, but the action soon speeds up to finish in the trademark breakneck style of author John Sanford.
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Monday, July 13, 2020
LONG RANGE a New Wyoming Crime Thriller for Summer Reading
Wyoming state game warden Joe Pickett returns in Long Range, a new crime thriller from C.J. Box. The popular series is set against a rugged Western landscape as Joe Pickett finds himself involved in often dangerous criminal situations.
An unknown sniper tries to shoot a local judge through the window of his dining room. The rifle shot comes from what seems like an impossible distance, a wooded hillside over a mile away. The shooter uses a high-tech weapon with a computerized sighting system. The trajectory is perfect, finding the window target exactly, but when the judge bends just before the bullet arrives, it strikes his wife instead, grievously wounding her.
Joe Pickett joins the local authorities in the search for the unknown marksman. The arrogant new sheriff doesn't want Joe's help, so Joe follows his own leads. But the trail twists toward hidden motives and surprising suspects in the small town that Pickett would never have believed could be involved in trying to kill a judge. As Joe and a posse close in on the killer in a dangerous mountain hunt, the shooter is already sighting in on Joe himself.
Long Range is another entertaining offering from author C.J. Box. The this one makes a perfect beach book that readers will gulp down with their iced teas.
An unknown sniper tries to shoot a local judge through the window of his dining room. The rifle shot comes from what seems like an impossible distance, a wooded hillside over a mile away. The shooter uses a high-tech weapon with a computerized sighting system. The trajectory is perfect, finding the window target exactly, but when the judge bends just before the bullet arrives, it strikes his wife instead, grievously wounding her.
Joe Pickett joins the local authorities in the search for the unknown marksman. The arrogant new sheriff doesn't want Joe's help, so Joe follows his own leads. But the trail twists toward hidden motives and surprising suspects in the small town that Pickett would never have believed could be involved in trying to kill a judge. As Joe and a posse close in on the killer in a dangerous mountain hunt, the shooter is already sighting in on Joe himself.
Long Range is another entertaining offering from author C.J. Box. The this one makes a perfect beach book that readers will gulp down with their iced teas.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Crime and Suspense Classics - The Essential Reading List
Coronavirus Reprint - This list was previously published by this Blog. If you can get hold of any of these titles, they make for great reading during the current virus shutdown.
Here's a list of classic novels that are essential reads in the Crime and Suspense genres. The list is roughly chronological, ranging from the 1930s to the current time. Note that the list does not include traditional Mystery novels, which is a separate genre.
The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett. Where the terse, hardboiled style all began.
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
Double Indemnity - James M. Cain. The classic Noir doomed crime plan.
The Getaway - Jim Thompson. The crime novel as a descent into Hell.
The Manchurian Candidate - Richard Condon. The paranoid conspiracy thriller and a monstrous maternal figure.
Psycho - Robert Bloch.
The Deep Blue Goodbye - John D. MacDonald
The Friends of Eddie Coyle - George V. Higgins. Gritty crime story told in pitch perfect street dialogue. Elmore Leonard learned from this author.
Death Wish - Brian Garfield. Unban crime problems and the novel of revenge.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John LeCarre. The perfect Cold War spy novel.
The Ipcress File - Len Deighton. The spy novel retold with working class cynicism.
Marathon Man - William Goldman. That shudder-grating torture scene in a dental chair.
Miami Blues - Charles Willeford. An under-appreciated gem of a crime author.
Killshot - Elmore Leonard.
The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy. Frantic, pitch black, and borderline insane, as only Ellroy can write.
Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris. The best serial killer novel ever written.
Heaven's Prisoners - James Lee Burke
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane.
No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy. Noir fatalism in the new West.
City of Bones - Michael Connelly. The police procedural at its best.
The Leopard - Jo Nesbo. Obsession, Nordic style.
Thriller Novel Classics - The Essential Reading List
Coronavirus Reprint - This list was previously published by this Blog. If you can get your hands on any of these classic titles, they make for great reading during the current virus shutdown.
Here's a list of classic novels that are essential reads in the Suspense Thriller genre. The list is generally chronological beginning with the modern day thriller advent in the 1960s. The Thriller genre is here defined as page-turner novels with strong action and suspense plot elements.
Here's a list of classic novels that are essential reads in the Suspense Thriller genre. The list is generally chronological beginning with the modern day thriller advent in the 1960s. The Thriller genre is here defined as page-turner novels with strong action and suspense plot elements.
Fail Safe by Eugene Burdick - Nuclear War thriller envisioned, as a technical system failure brings the US and USSR to the brink of catastrophe.
Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel - Political crisis thriller as the Joint Chiefs plot a coup to take over the American government.
Goldfinger by Ian Fleming - Best of the James Bond spy thriller series.
Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean
Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth - Assassination thriller plot played out against an international canvas.
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton - Biological contamination crisis at a secret Nevada desert scientific facility.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three by John Godey - the Big Heist thriller set beneath the streets of New York City.
Black Sunday by Thomas Harris - Terrorist plot to hijack a blimp and pilot it into Super Bowl stadium crowd.
Marathon Man by William Goldman - Best ever interrogation scene shudderingly enacted in a dentist's chair.
The Boys From Brazil by Ira Levin - Nazi Conspiracy thriller with a new, chilling science fiction angle.
Jaws by Peter Benchley - Natural Environment thriller at a seacoast resort town menaced by a Great White shark.
The Towering Inferno by Richard Martin Stern - Disaster thriller scenario as an unstoppable fire rages inside a giant skyscraper.
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy - Military thriller plays out as a Soviet nuclear sub crew attempts to defect to U.S.
Firefox by Craig Thomas - Techno/Military mission as a U.S. agent tries to steal a high tech Soviet fighter plane and fly it out of Russia.
The Firm by John Grisham - Legal thriller sees a young lawyer join a law firm with secret organized crime connections.
True Crime by Andrew Klavan - Race against time thriller as a reporter tries to halt a wrongful execution.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - Follows chain of historical puzzle clues to revelation of a sensational religious secret.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - Swedish government conspiracy thriller with a hacker/punk female lead character.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Matt Scudder Short Stories Now Collected Together
Matt Scudder is the New York detective created by Lawrence Block. Scudder appears in a long series of novels that follow him from his time as an NYPD cop to his later work as an unlicensed private investigator. The early novels see Scudder descend into serious alcoholism before joining AA and trying to stay permanently sober.
The Night and the Music includes all of the Scudder short stories collected together for the first time. Standout stories are "Out the Window" and "A Candle for the Bag Lady." All of the pieces are written in lean, hard boiled prose and narrated in the familiar dry cynical voice of Matt Scudder.
This is a great story collection for previous Lawrence Block fans and a nice introduction for new Matt Scudder readers.
The Night and the Music includes all of the Scudder short stories collected together for the first time. Standout stories are "Out the Window" and "A Candle for the Bag Lady." All of the pieces are written in lean, hard boiled prose and narrated in the familiar dry cynical voice of Matt Scudder.
This is a great story collection for previous Lawrence Block fans and a nice introduction for new Matt Scudder readers.
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
John Le Carre Gets Political in AGENT RUNNING
Agent Running in the Field is the latest novel by John Le Carre, the renown master of the international espionage novel. This new book is a smaller scale picture of a backwater British spy sub-agency called The Haven that deals with minor intelligence nuisances.
The story is narrated by Nat, a veteran agent network runner now close to being put out to pasture by his agency. Nat's cynical voice allows John Le Carre to show his own dry wit with much inside baseball description of the mundane daily workings of The Haven. The actual plot of the novel is very thin, with Nat reconnecting with a former agent asset, who has urgent new information about a Russian undercover operation inside Britain. A surprising revelation puts Nat under suspicion at his own agency.
Unfortunately, the novel goes off the track as author Le Carre uses the story to vent his own strident political biases against Brexit, the Tory Party, and the American Trump administration. Le Carre has often shown open anti-American disdain in previous novels (see A Most Wanted Man ) and he continues that nasty streak here.
Agent Running in the Field is almost a droll satire of spy agencies, but the novel is mainly a diversion for die-hard John Le Carre fans who share his leftist politics.
The story is narrated by Nat, a veteran agent network runner now close to being put out to pasture by his agency. Nat's cynical voice allows John Le Carre to show his own dry wit with much inside baseball description of the mundane daily workings of The Haven. The actual plot of the novel is very thin, with Nat reconnecting with a former agent asset, who has urgent new information about a Russian undercover operation inside Britain. A surprising revelation puts Nat under suspicion at his own agency.
Unfortunately, the novel goes off the track as author Le Carre uses the story to vent his own strident political biases against Brexit, the Tory Party, and the American Trump administration. Le Carre has often shown open anti-American disdain in previous novels (see A Most Wanted Man ) and he continues that nasty streak here.
Agent Running in the Field is almost a droll satire of spy agencies, but the novel is mainly a diversion for die-hard John Le Carre fans who share his leftist politics.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
THE NIGHT FIRE a New Crime Novel From Michael Connelly
The Night Fire by Michael Connelly is a new Crime novel in the popular series that features former LAPD Detective Harry Bosch. Bosch is retired now, but still works some cases on his own time. He's drawn into a new mystery when his former LAPD mentor dies and leaves behind the file on a murder cold case for Bosch alone to look into.
Once again, Bosch crosses paths with LAPD Detective Renee Ballard, who is working the open case of a homeless man set on fire one night and murdered by someone unkown. As Bosch pursues his case and Ballard works hers, connections between the two murders begin to show up. What emerges is the pattern of a much larger conspiracy and the existence of a single ruthless professional killer at the center of the unsolved deaths.
The hunt for the killer leads Bosch and Ballard into a deadly confrontation that neither of them saw coming.
The Night Fire is a solid police procedural that moves back and forth between the two main characters of Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard created by Michael Connelly, one of the best crime authors writing today.
Once again, Bosch crosses paths with LAPD Detective Renee Ballard, who is working the open case of a homeless man set on fire one night and murdered by someone unkown. As Bosch pursues his case and Ballard works hers, connections between the two murders begin to show up. What emerges is the pattern of a much larger conspiracy and the existence of a single ruthless professional killer at the center of the unsolved deaths.
The hunt for the killer leads Bosch and Ballard into a deadly confrontation that neither of them saw coming.
The Night Fire is a solid police procedural that moves back and forth between the two main characters of Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard created by Michael Connelly, one of the best crime authors writing today.
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